Birding in the Texas Panhandle

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Common Nighthawk

I drove out to Plum Creek this morning after I got off work. Plum Creek is on the west side of Lake Meredith, about 30-35 miles from my house, so I don’t get out there a lot. It was a nice drive, and after all the rain this spring the pastures and canyons are lush. I didn’t see anything unusual but I did log quite a few species, including a pair of Common Nighthawks. This is the first time this year that I’ve seen any, but I’ve seen them pretty often in the past. Two summers ago there was a couple that hunted in the pasture next to the EMS station where I work and I could sit out by the back door in the evening and hear their peents and booms as they hunted mosquitoes and it the mornings I could hear Cassin’s Sparrows and Mockingbirds skylarking. Last year they bulldozed the pasture and built a &*^%#$& Walmart, so now I can sit out the back door and look at the Walmart trash that blows onto our lot and the grackles that scavenge through it. What a trade off.

Oh, well, here is a photo of one the Common Nighthawks. I took about 30 or so and this is the only one that came even close to being in focus. The little buggers are quick.